Under the Veil
by Aieika
Summary: His action that day were simply to right a wrong he knew was being committed. What he did not plan on, was that the life he saved that day would begin to carve a path out for him to follow. Rated M for Graphic Violence.


**Disclaimer: I Own nothing**

**This my first attempt at a long fanfic. I hope you enjoy! An Official FMA character DOES show up, but I'll let you guess who it is. (It is unclear for a reason but it really should not be that hard to guess) Otherwise please be patient. This chapter is mostly setup after all, and really does not have anything to do with the FMA world, but it will soon. **

The sun was just about to set. The glow of the orange orb cast light that gave the impression of surrounding area being on fire. The pink, purple, and red skyline made the overall picture other worldly.

It was a tiny outpost on the top of a hill. Anyone in the surrounding area could see it, but of course, the outpost could see almost anyone in the surrounding area. That was why it was there after all. A small but bloody uprising had happened there many years past, before anyone stationed there was born at the very least.

The land surrounding the small base was peaceful. No one expected anyone to rise up here. Not anymore. It was one of the reasons that the highest ranking officer stationed there was Major Samuel Wallace. Major Wallace was a man of few words, but not only did he use those "few words" a lot, those "few words" tended to be rather arrogant. He thought that he was the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel, though really the man called him about as useful as a cinder block on the axel of a cart. He was gone frequently from the base. Had more important things to do… most of the men suspected he had bribed a young girl in the village to entertain him. Needless to say, the leadership was not respected in the least.

As it was Major Wallace happened to be gone this sunset, so the men were getting the work they could not get done under his constant useless stream consisting of those said few words arranged slightly differently to make it appear like he might not be saying the same thing repeatedly.

The man that took charge was First Lieutenant Creig Hoy. Now this was a man that everyone respected. He was smart, made good decisions, worked well under pressure, and knew what to do and when to do it. He was not Omni present by any means, but when he said something, the men knew that he knew what he was talking about. He cared for the men at the outpost unlike the Major.

Lieutenant Hoy even managed to gain the respect of one Second Lieutenant Laura Sanders. Laura was not only the youngest person on the base, but the only girl. She wasn't even really stationed there; she just was there because that was where her orders had told her to wait. Laura was seventeen years old. She was in the rank that she was, because she had been employed by the state at the tender age of thirteen. She was not an alchemist like the young boy that was said to have passed the state exam and had been certified as a state alchemist a month or so previous. She was scouted because she had a different set of "talents."

She was the best hand on hand combat fighters in the military. Her father had been an illegal arms dealer. While most girls were playing with dolls she was learning how to throw a knife. When other girls were worrying about the latest fashions, she was worried about the penetration capabilities of the latest shot guns. While those girls were playing with make-up, she was sharpening her rather large collection of blades.

She was small, and could move almost silently in any environment. She could perform acrobatics that any muscle heavy man could never dream of. She was flexible and she was resourceful. And not only that… she was pretty. She could get close to people without their body guards taking a second look at her. She did not look like killer, but she was. She was a fully trained special ops assassin, and that is how she got her rank.

This was not the first time she had been to this outpost either. It was her third time. The first time she had been almost completely silent. She had a look that told people around to just stay away. However First Lieutenant Hoy would not be faltered. When lunch came after the rumors and fear had been circulated around the camp, and Laura was sure that everyone was afraid of her, Hoy had sat down next to her, and even started trying to coax a conversation out of her. By the end of the lunch they had finally found a topic (the ups and downs of sniper rifles) and they were having a good conversation about it. She may not have been fully open, but she was certainly talking, although rather shyly.

At dinner that night she came a bit late and there were no empty tables like the one that she had sat at had been (And mostly stayed). Then she saw Hoy waving her to join his table. The men were nervous at first, but Hoy started up a conversation that caught on instantly (The serious lack of clean wash cloths on the base) and they began to figure out away to rectify the situation. Soon Laura had made at the very least friendly acquaintances. Eventually she began to enjoy it there. The group at the table became her friends, and her allies. These were people that she could trust.

So when she turned up for a third time, she received a warm welcome. She had been there a few days already awaiting further orders. She was currently sitting outside with her buddies enjoying the air and the lack of Major Wallace to ruin said air. Major Wallace had been a recent transfers. He had not been there for her last two times there, but Laura had caught the disdain for him quickly.

"And the parts of this thing go to this part of that thing. Things don't just go apart just like that!" imitated Sergeant Miller sounding just like Major Wallace. The group laughed hard.

"Man Miller! You gotta take the cake!" choked out Sergeant Toms between laughes.

"I would but you seem to be choking on it," teased Miller. This made the group if anything laugh harder.

"Only if I could get a slice before Ruther over here got to it," bantered Toms playfully.

"Oh I would if I could," said Second Lieutenant Ruther, "I could use a good slice of cake right now… but I'd rather like a good slice of a nice rump of a leh-deh." Ruther made the motions of a nice curvy woman with his hands.

"That's only if you think you could get close to a ladies rump," Laura scoffed theatrically, "I know I'd never let you near mine!"

"Now, now men," said Hoy in a tone that would be appropriate for a mother scolding a small child. "If there are any ladies rumps to be had it would be by m—BOMB!" The warning came a split second too late. Hoy pushed down the nearest man to him saving the life of one Sergeant Miller. Toms and Ruther were not so lucky.

There was a loud boom and the ground thumped like it had suddenly had a giant heart under it, for several thumps followed shortly after eerily similar to a beating heart.

Laura had seen the bomb almost at the same time Hoy had, but she was not as close to the explosion or any of the other men as he had. She managed to force herself backward and fall behind the low cement wall that she had been sitting on just in time, though a piece of shrapnel had still caught her in the leg. Blood began to pour from the wound, but not badly. She would be fine for a while at least. It had missed any major veins.

She could hear the shouts of men all around her, the men trying to figure out what was going on and what the best battle defense would be, more bombs going off at the same time. But at the moment none of that mattered. She quickly drew her pistol and got low and made her way quickly back over the wall and to the circle that she had just been in.

Ruther and Toms were barely recognizable. Blood and pieces of shrapnel were covering them. Ruther was blown against the wall that Laura had fallen behind and there was blood and bits and pieces of him splattered all over it. Toms had been the closest to the blast with his back facing it. His head had been severed and it was laying several feet from where his somewhat intact torso and limbs were.

A sudden cry brought Laura's eyes off the mangles corpse of her friends to Hoy and Miller. Miller had also mostly managed to remain unscathed. A combination of Hoys body and the sand bags that he had been sitting on and pushed off had saved him. Hoy however… had both of his legs blown off, leaving stringy muscle and streams of blood in their place. Hoy was in pain, but it did not seem that he had realized just what had happened and was still in too much shock to feel the full force of it.

Laura acted quickly yelling at the Sergeant to help her. Only to find her voice muffled, and Millers response was barely audible. Then it all came back in one deafening scream. Shouts, explosions, screams, all jumbled together in a mess of sound. She could tell that Miller had not yet recovered from the hearing loss. She had always been quick to get over these sorts of things, so she really was not surprised. Laura stuck her pistol back in its holster and grabbed a bit of rope that blown nearby and cut it into two pieces with the switch blade in her left pocket. She then quickly tied each piece around the stump of each leg in order to stop as much bleeding as she could. Miller got the idea and helped her.

She then motioned that they were going to have to carry him to someplace more sheltered. She took of her coat and Miller took off his, and they tie them together to make a sling. They lifted him up on it and had him suspended in between them when the gunfire started.

"Miller, we gotta go. Come on!" Laura shouted and by the look on Miller's face, he had just regained his hearing and could hear the guns too.

"Head for the old ware house! It's a good hold point and it has an entrance to the old underground supply systems from back when the rebellion happened! It's closest and safest bet we've got!" Miller shouted.

Muttering her apologies to Hoy, Laura quickly bunched her ends of the sling together hiding his face. Holding on to it with one hand using all of the strength her muscles would allow and then some adrenaline to boot she took the gun out of her holster and held it at the ready.

She saw a solider she did not recognize running toward them. He had a rifle in his hands. She was about to call him over to watch their backs while they got to ware house but he suddenly took aim and fired towards them. It was only when she felt the sudden shift in weight of Hoys sling that she realized what had happened.

Laura saw as if it had been in slow motion Miller falling backwards as the bottom half of Hoy fell to the ground, a stream of blood being shot out of the opposite side of the head where he had been shot through the brain. Miller fell dead.

Laura only had a moment to react when she saw him aiming at her. She was faster. One pull of a trigger and the man that had killed Miller and who knows how many others, fell dead on the ground. Shot in the forehead.

She did not have much choice. She dropped the sling and Hoy who was passed out from the pain did not respond. She grabbed him under the arms and pulled, holding on the gun wondering how she was going to save him, and not kill any innocent men. She saw a small building nearby. That would have to do. She was not sure how much her injured leg could take.

She got him inside and to a corner and waited with her gun at the ready. She stood near an open window and heard voices. She got closer and listened. "Ah man! Why did not Military just up and attack us! What we do?" Cried a man desperately; he sounded injured.

"I don' know. But come on, we need to get you somewhe—and the man was cut off by a gunshot, the injured man barely had time to make an sound at all before he too was shot.

"The Mil… itary… is… be… hind… this?" Hoy had woken up and was looking at Laura. "Why?"

"Because this is a useless base, with useless soldiers who have been harboring a traitor," a man said who Laura had not seen or heard come through the door. He gun had shifted slightly in shock but before she could correct her aim and fire, she found that a spike had grown out of the ground stabbing her in the side. She cried out in pain, dropping her gun. The spike retracted and she saw that he had a transmutation circle on his glove, before she hit the ground. He was an Alchemist then.

"Trait…or?" gasped.

"Yes, and traitor. You in fact. Didn't you know? You know an awful lot about the militaries dirty work… mostly because you carried it out!" the man seemed almost giddy about this.

She took felt the switch blade in her pocket. It was in reach. She grabbed it and in a moment of sheer adrenaline and desperation launched herself toward the man in front of her.

He knocked her blade arm out of the way and hit her across the face causing her to hit the wall next to Hoy and slid down leaving a bloody trail.

"Now Now! We can't have that now can we? Speaking of which," He pulled out a gun and carelessly shot Hoy in the head. "We cannot have him talking. Strictly classified information you know… As for you. Say good bye." He pointed his gun carefully between her eyes, still smiling. The man was excited to kill her. When suddenly he lurched forward and fell to the ground at her feet.

Another man stood there looking down at the man who moments before had been ready to kill her. He then looked at her in the eye. She saw no pity, only a fiery determination. She thought she had seen him somewhere before. Then the man spoke. "The old store building is connected to tunnels that lead out of the base. You can get to it by going out the window and across the lot behind the building. The guards between you and the warehouse are my men. They will shoot at you but not hit you. Go to that tunnel and one of my men will take you down and to a safe house where a doctor is waiting for you.

"Go quickly, before anyone else come in. Oh! But first…" the man walked up to Laura and took her switch blade from her hand."

"How… can I…trust you?"

He smirked, "You don't have a choice. Now!" He stabbed himself in the leg with her knife biting his lip in pain. "Go… quickly… all come and explain when it is clear…"

She had no choice. With one last look at Hoy, she threw herself out the window and stepped over the bodies of the two dead men. The men on either side shot at her but missed, like he said they would. It was not like she was very fast or a difficult target in this state. She tripped and fell straight through the doors, and then lost consciousness.

**I hope you enjoyed it. Leave comments. Anything I messed up on, or weird holes. I will try to clear them up next chapter. **


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